Virtual Press conference on global health issues transcript - 15 February 2023
Overview
00:01:14
CL Hello
and welcome, and thank you very much for your patience for bearing with us for
so long today. Again, I hope we can make it worthwhile. Colleagues have also
been travelling still until today, so we’re having a good number of colleagues
just here with us fresh, returning from missions.
Welcome again to WHO’s virtual press conference
on global health issues and other health emergencies, including COVID-19 and,
of course, an update on the earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic.
It’s Wednesday, 15 February 2023. My name is Christian Lindmeier and I will
take you through today’s press conference out of Geneva, here. Simultaneous translation
is again provided in the six official languages, Arabic, Chinese, French,
English, Spanish and Russian, as well as Portuguese and Hindi.
Now, with us today, here on the podium, are Dr
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan, Executive
Director for WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme. We have Dr Sylvie Briand,
Director for Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Response. We also have Dr
Rosamund Lewis, Technical Lead on monkeypox, as well as Rob Holden, the Incident
Manager for Earthquake Response.
00:02:33
We have a number of colleagues online such as Dr
Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead on COVID-19, Dr Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo, the
Coordinator for the R&D Blueprint, and Dr Abdi Rahman Mahamud, the Director
Ad Interim for Alert and Response Coordination. With this, let me hand over to
the Director-General for the opening remarks.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Christian. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Last
night, I returned from the Syrian Arab Republic, where I visited areas affected
by last week’s devastating earthquake. I saw the destruction of entire
communities, the unspeakable suffering of people, and the courage and determination
of survivors and responders.
In Aleppo, I met people in temporary shelters
set up by community and religious groups. I saw neighbours supporting each
other with bedding, clothes and food. I saw health workers providing medicines
and consultations. I met WHO’s teams, who themselves are affected by the
earthquake, to hear about the work they are doing. And I visited health centres
where I saw how, even before this disaster, more than a decade of war has left
the health system unable to cope with an emergency like this.
As we drove from Aleppo to Damascus, I saw the
legacy of conflict, with town after town destroyed and abandoned. Survivors are
now facing freezing conditions without adequate shelter, heating, food, clean
water or medical care. WHO is providing care to survivors with injuries and
disabilities sustained in the earthquake, hypothermia, mental health and
psychosocial needs, the increased risk of infectious diseases and the range of
regular health needs. So far, we have shipped medicines and supplies to both
affected countries to support care for more than half a million people,
including for urgent surgery.
00:05:04
In Damascus, the Regional Director, Dr Ahmed
Al-Mandhari, Chief of Emergencies, Dr Mike Ryan, and I met with President Assad
to discuss the impact of the earthquake and we requested that he allow
additional cross-border access points, which he indicated he was open to. On
Monday, two more cross-border points were opened, allowing convoys from Türkiye
into the north-west of the Syrian Arab Republic. This supplements the aid we
had in place before the earthquake struck and which we distributed to health
facilities that day.
WHO remains committed to supporting all people
in the Syrian Arab Republic now and in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
On Saturday, we launched an appeal for US$43 million to support our response in
both countries. This amount is increasing by the day and we expect WHO’s
financial needs for this emergency to double by the end of this week. We urge
donors to be generous. The search and rescue phase is now coming to an end but,
for WHO, the task of saving lives is only just beginning.
00:06:32
Now, to Equatorial Guinea, which on Monday
confirmed an outbreak of Marburg virus disease in two districts near the
borders with Cameroon and Gabon. This is the first reported outbreak of Marburg
in Equatorial Guinea. Marburg belongs to the same family of viruses as Ebola,
causes similar symptoms, transmits between humans the same way and, like Ebola,
has a very high fatality ratio.
So far, nine deaths have been reported in people
with symptoms consistent with Marburg and one tested positive for the virus. The
other eight deaths are considered suspected cases because they had similar
symptoms and were most likely part of the same transmission chain but Marburg
could not be confirmed because samples could not be obtained. 16 suspected
cases have been admitted to health facilities with mild symptoms and 21
contacts are being monitored at home.
WHO is supporting the government to respond to
the outbreak by deploying experts in epidemiology, clinical care, risk
communication, community engagement, and infection prevention and control. We
are also helping to establish diagnostic capacity for Marburg, and we have
chartered flights to send medical supplies and personal protective equipment
from our hub in Nairobi, Kenya.
So far, no confirmed cases have been reported in
Cameroon or Gabon but WHO is working with the Ministry of Health of Cameroon to
investigate an alert in that country. We are also supporting the governments of
Cameroon and Gabon to prepare to rapidly detect, isolate and provide care for
any suspected cases. There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for
Marburg virus disease, and few are in development.
00:08:47
Yesterday, WHO convened a consultation of the
Marburg virus vaccine and therapeutics consortium, which includes developers
and experts from around the world. Any decision on trials of vaccines and
therapeutics will be made by national authorities and researchers in Equatorial
Guinea.
In the meantime, WHO is convening the vaccine
prioritisation committee to identify which candidate vaccines should be
evaluated first and taking steps to prepare for potential trials. WHO is also
discussing with the Ministry of Health the possibility of providing access to
experimental therapeutics as part of a clinical trial.
Following the large increase in reported
COVID-19-related deaths last month, especially from China, hospitalisations and
deaths have declined. Last week, around 10,000 deaths were reported to WHO,
which is similar to the number of weekly deaths reported prior to last month’s
increase. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again 10,000 thousand deaths a
week is 10,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.
We also know that the data reported to WHO are
an underestimate due to reduced testing and delays in reporting. Subvariants of
Omicron remain dominant globally and remain a cause of concern, given their
increased transmissibility and the fact that all subvariants can kill. We have
the tools to save lives and end COVID-19 as a global health emergency this
year. We must continue to use them all, and use them well.
00:10:54
On Friday, the Emergency Committee for the
global outbreak of mpox met to assess whether, in its view, the outbreak
remains a public health emergency of international concern. The committee has
advised me that, in its view, mpox remains a global health emergency, and I
have accepted that advice. The committee acknowledged the progress made in
reducing mpox transmission globally and the continued decline in reported cases
since its last meeting.
However, more than 30 countries continue to
report cases and the possible under-detection and under-reporting of confirmed
cases in some regions is concerning, particularly in countries where animal-human
transmission of mpox has been reported before. WHO continues to call on all
countries to maintain surveillance for mpox and to integrate services for
prevention, preparedness and response into national control programmes,
including for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
The earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab
Republic, Marburg in Equatorial Guinea and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic all
point to the need for all countries to build health systems that can withstand
the shock of emergencies and deliver the care people need when they need it
most. Christian, back to you.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Tedros. We will now open the floor to questions. Let me
remind everybody again to raise your hands with the Raise Your Hand icon in
order to get into the queue. We’ll with Helen Branswell, from STAT. Helen,
please go ahead.
00:13:03
HB Thank
you very much, Christian. My question is about the Marburg outbreak. Has the Institut
Pasteur in Senegal managed to type or sequence the virus yet? Do you know which
strain of Marburg it is? Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much and I believe we have Dr Ana Maria Restrepo online. So, please go
ahead.
AH I
think this question is for Dr Abdi Mahamud.
CL Thank
you, Ana Maria. Then, we’ll go to Abdi Mahamud, the Director for Alert and
Response Coordination.
AM Thanks,
Helen. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the excellent
support from IP Dakar. The team have been working overnight. We expected the
result would be released today, we were told, but we are still waiting for them.
Indeed, they did two PCR tests. Both of them showed the tests were positive.
So, hopefully, within the coming hours or tomorrow we’ll be able to get the
sequencing results.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Mahamud. Next question goes to Ashleigh Furlong, from
Politico. Ashleigh, please go ahead.
AF Thank
you for taking my question. My question is to Dr Van Kerkhove regarding her
comments to Nature on the origins investigation. When you said that the plan
has changed on the work being done and that there is no phase two to this work,
I was hoping you could clarify what you meant, as I understand that WHO press office
is saying that while the investigation is stalled it is not abandoned. I was
hoping just to hear you elaborate a bit on what you meant in that interview.
Thank you very much.
00:14:51
CL Thank
you for that opportunity to clarify. Dr Van Kerkhove, please.
MK Thanks
very much for the question. This is an error in reporting, which is really quite
concerning because it’s causing some headlines that are inaccurate. I think we
need to be perfectly clear that WHO has not abandoned studying the origins of
COVID-19, we have not and we will not.
I spent more than an hour speaking with this
reporter over three separate interviews, one of which was in person while we
were in Singapore together, describing the history of the different missions
that have taken place over time in which WHO has been involved in studying and supporting
field activities related to understanding the origins of this pandemic.
Initially, phase two was planned to be a
continuation of that January 2021 mission to Wuhan which was, in a sense, seen
as phase one, but we updated our plans, and I’ve explained this to that
reporter. In a sense, phase two became SAGO. So, we were building on what was
done during phase one and establishing the SAGO as a permanent strategic
advisory group to conduct an independent assessment of the origins of COVID-19,
but also to work more broadly to establish a framework to understand the
origins of any future epidemic and pandemic pathogen and the origins in which
it emerges.
00:16:10
So, the creation of SAGO was, in effect, our
best effort to move this work forward. We made this very clear in several
statements of SAGO, several statements by the Director-General, by myself, by
Mike Ryan in different press briefings, but also in statements that we
published online. SAGO is an incredible group of experts from around the world
that have come together and have met multiple times, including two times face-to-face
over the last year to advance our understandings of this.
I think I also want to make very clear that in
this article there was a suggestion of a quiet shelving of a plan. There was no
quiet shelving of any plans. We have been and we continue to be open,
transparent. We brief our Member States regularly in the wider world on where
we are with finding these origins.
But let me also be very clear that we continue
to ask for more cooperation and collaboration with our colleagues in China to
advance studies that need to take place in China, studies that were recommended
from the March 2021 WHO report, from the June 2022 SAGO report, and studies
that we’ve been recommending, studies at the animal-human interface and
markets, on farms. These studies need to be conducted in China and we need
cooperation from our colleagues there to advance our understandings.
We will follow the science. We will continue to
ask for countries to depoliticise this work but we need cooperation from our
colleagues in China to advance this. I do also want to mention that through the
work of studying the origins, it’s very difficult.
00:17:46
We have always envisioned multiple missions to
China for particular technical aspects but also elsewhere, wherever the science
takes us, and we have worked with additional member states around the world to
understand and follow any lead in terms any early indication of SARS-CoV-2
circulation, and we will continue to do so.
So, we just need to make sure that it’s very
clear that we haven’t abandoned any plans. We haven’t stopped any work. We will
not stop until we understand the origins of this. And it is becoming
increasingly difficult because the more time that passes, the more difficult it
becomes to really understand what happened in those early stages of the
pandemic.
The DG may want to add to this but we will work
with any Member State and all Member States. We will work with scientists to
keep it rooted in the science until we have better understanding of what
happened, follow all hypotheses, follow any science that leads us in any
direction. And we thank the colleagues around the world who are helping us to
advance this. Thanks.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Van Kerkhove, and we have the Director-General to add.
TAG Thank
you. I think following up on the origins study and knowing how this pandemic
started is very, very important and very crucial, and we should continue
pursuing. As you know, there are two reasons why we need to know the origins of
this pandemic. First, it’s science and, second, it’s a moral issue.
00:19:23
First, when I say science, we need to know how
this started in order prevent the next one. Second, when I say moral, millions
of people lost their lives and many suffered and the whole world was taken
hostage by a virus, and it’s morally very important to know how we lost our
loved ones. So, it is a science and moral issue and we need to continue to push
until we get the answer.
As Maria said, we are continuing to push and
recently, as recent as seven weeks ago, I sent a letter to a top official, a
top official in China, asking for cooperation because we need cooperation and
transparency and the information we asked in order to know how this started.
So, I assure you that we will continue to push, we will continue to pursue
until we get the answer because this is scientifically correct and morally
correct to really pursue and understand the answer to the origins and how this
pandemic has started.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Tedros. Next question goes to Simon Ateba, from Today News
Africa. Simon, please go ahead.
SA Thank
you, Christian, for taking my question. This is Simon Ateba, with Today News
Africa in Washington DC. On the Marburg virus disease in Equatorial Guinea, I
was just wondering if the WHO has all the resources in place that it may need
in case the situation escalates or spreads to Cameroon and Gabon. Also, a high
level US delegation is in Addis Ababa this week and I was wondering if there
are planned meetings between the WHO and Biden officials who will be there on
the update of the Ethiopia and Tigray situation. Thank you. Especially when it
comes to access. Thank you.
00:21:45
CL Thank
you very much, Simon. We’ll start with Dr Mahamud on Marburg.
AM Thanks,
Simon. In terms of WHO capacity, we do have the resources and the capability to
support Equatorial Guinea. Right now, we have WHO in teams, the country office
has been repurposed, and we have already sent more support from headquarters
and regional offices. Just today we had our grading call, our internal grading,
and we have enough teams to support the regional office.
Both our country offices in Gabon and Cameroon
are coordinating closely with the Ministry of Health in terms of the regional
and sub-regional readiness. So, the main priority right now is strengthening
the surveillance and the laboratory capacity as it is a long time since some of
these countries had viral haemorrhagic fever. It’s the first time Equatorial
Guinea is dealing with it but the lessons learned from COVID response have
strengthened the government.
They’re using the capability that was there for
the structure, at the national level led by the Vice-President, at a technical
level the Minister of Health, and the sub-mission. As we speak now, the
Director-General of Public Health with a WHO team is in the field and one of
our senior epidemiologists from Geneva is on the ground supporting the team.
So, we are ready, I think, and the regional office
have a lot of experience including the recent outbreak in Uganda, the previous
Marburg virus outbreak in Guinea and Ghana. So, we’ll be able to support the
ministry and our Member States in responding to this outbreak.
00:23:30
CL Thank
you very much Dr Mahamud, and for the part on Ethiopia, Dr Mike Ryan, please.
MR Dr
Tedros may wish to further comment but in terms of the humanitarian access in Tigray,
it continues to improve and WHO continues to affect all people affected by
conflict and other emergencies in Ethiopia. But, specifically for Tigray,
certainly more and more of the area is accessible, although there are still
areas that are not being accessed.
Fuel is becoming more available. More trucks are
crossing into the area and health services or health centres are being
resupplied. As I said, fuel supplies have increased as well. So, overall we’re
seeing an increased access across and I think it speaks to the fact that the
peace process has now really resulted in what was a long blockade for many months,
for over a year.
And it shows you, when you actually do allow
material in, how quickly you can start to get to aid to people who’ve been
without that for so long. So, we welcome that access and it should continue.
There are still, I think, issues with areas close to the border with Eritrea
that still have foreign troops present and that has to be dealt with as well. I
know the banking system as well, there’s more money reaching the banking system
in Tigray.
00:25:11
So, the things that Dr Tedros has called for
before consistently over the last year and half, access to fuel, access to
money in the banking system, access to medicines, access to food, all of these
are improving now and we hope that the peace can be sustained, so people after
so long being cut off from the world, being cut off from the basic tools of
survival, now have an opportunity to recover.
But the needs are still vast. This population is
very vulnerable still and has been through a terrible amount of pain and
suffering, and we will continue to work with Ethiopian and the authorities the
region to continue to increase WHO’s access and presence the ground. I don’t
wish to comment on the political processes. The African Union are dealing with
the peace process and the monitoring of that, but Dr Tedros may wish to comment
on that.
CL Thanks
very much, Dr Ryan. Dr Tedros.
TAG Thank
you. Mike, I think, has covered it. Since the signing of the agreement there is
improvement and better access but, as Mike said, there are areas that are still
occupied by Eritrean forces where access is limited but, at the same time, we
see continued violation of human rights and massacring of civilians in the
areas occupied by Eritrean forces. I think, while understanding that there is
progress, addressing the continued problems will be very important for the
peace process to really continue to move forward.
On the specific meetings, you asked about the
delegation from the US and their Ethiopian counterparts. We have no knowledge
about this and I cannot comment on that. Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much, Dr Ryan and Dr Tedros. Next question goes to Belisa Godinho, from
W Magazine, Portugal. Belisa, please go ahead.
00:27:28
BG Thank
you for taking my question. What will need to be done to assess healthcare in the
earthquake zones? What are the main challenges? What is missing? Thank you.
CL Thank
you much, Belisa, a very big question. We’ll go to Rob Holden, the Incident
Manager for the Earthquake Response. Excuse me.
RH Thanks
for the question. I think, as has been outlined by Dr Tedros in his opening
statement, the task is huge. There’s a lot to be done. That’s a very simple
answer to a very complex question.
Clearly, as the search and rescue phase comes to
an end, it’s about, as we talked about last week here and as Dr Tedros has
talked consistently about, it’s ensuring that we get healthcare services back
up and running and we make sure we get the supplies, the support, the equipment
into the hands of those providing healthcare, and not only to those with broken
bodies and broken bones but also to ensure that the healthcare services are there
for the people that need services on a day-to-day basis for normal ailments.
So, I think the number of people we’ve got to
access, close to five million as outlined in the latest appeal from the UN, it’s
going to take some time. The task is huge but it’s about getting those services
restarted where they’ve been stopped completely, it’s making sure that they
don’t stop where they’ve been disrupted, and it’s making sure that we can
sustain them for an extended period of time.
00:29:15
We also need to bear in mind it’s not just about
the hospitals and the clinics. We have a lot of people who have survived this
disaster who are now totally destitute. They’re without shelter, they’re
without access to safe water, they’re without access to heat, and we need to
make sure that the basics of life are given to those people as well. So, we
need to work hand in hand with the partners on the ground and the international
system to make sure that this is a holistic and collective response to look
after the needs of the people.
CL Thanks
so much. Dr Ryan, please.
MR As
Rob said, it’s about scaling up in terms of the response but also recognising
the tremendous courage and fortitude of frontline workers in both the Syrian
Arab Republic and in Türkiye. A lot of lives have been saved, a lot of people
have been pulled from rubble by their neighbours, by their friends, by their
sons, daughters, mothers, fathers. Frontline health workers have done amazing
work in both countries.
It’s clear that the zone of greatest concern at
the moment is the area of north-western Syria. The impact of the earthquake in
area of Syria controlled by the government is significant but the services are
there and there is access to those people, and supplies have come in from all
over the world, both in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic.
00:30:46
But we have to remember here that certainly in
Syria we’ve had ten years of war. The health system is amazingly fragile.
People have been through hell and this the latest both physical and
psychological strain on an already stressed population.
WHO has been working with other UN agencies and
NGOs for years and, particularly in relation to north-west Syria, we support
141 non-governmental organisations and have been supplying those organisations
with supplies and training over this last ten years.
But this can only keep a system barely
functional. We need long-term solutions for the people of Syria that allow the
stability, and Tedros speaks about all this all the time. We need peace for
health. It is an impossibility at times to provide adequate healthcare in the
context of eternal conflict.
So, the reality here and I think what we’re pleased
to see is that all sides are stepping back and focusing on the needs of the
people right now and that’s the most important thing right now, that we take
the politics out of this situation if we can and we continue to focus on the
people who are affected, on those frontline workers who are trying their best
to save lives, to prevent a secondary disaster of epidemic and loss of access
to healthcare for pregnant women, for children, for vaccination and other
things.
But this can only happen in the context of a
minimum level of stability, a minimum level of security that allows
non-governmental organisations, UN organisations and local staff to be able to
do their jobs. So, I think we’ve seen a huge ramp-up of aid. We’ve seen
deployment of emergency medical teams. We’ve seen all the things that we need
to see in a disaster.
00:32:49
But this is not sustainable unless we have a
more peaceful context in which this can happen more effectively. From a
humanitarian perspective, I think the scale-up is moving forward but that scale-up
and that presence and that ability to sustain our support to people will very
much depend on the conditions in which that is delivered.
And I think we have to call today for all sides
in this decade-old conflict to really think very carefully about the
population, particularly in Syria, the whole of Syria, because these people
have been through too much. Dr Tedros, myself, Rob and others have been there
and have witnessed the courage, but we’ve also witnessed the suffering.
And we’ve witnessed, I think something for me
personally, the psychological stress that we could see in people’s eyes. It was
very hard to bear, very hard to see because people felt that they survived ten
years of war and now this. It’s a really hard thing to experience for us coming
in from outside but we get to leave. We get to come back to Geneva and we get
to call on others and ourselves to do more.
But those people, those millions of people are
still there today and it’s cold and many people are still out in the open. So,
we really would appeal to everyone out there to continue to give, to continue
to support the appeals, and to continue to focus on the health needs of all of
the people of Türkiye and Syria.
00:34:35
CL Thank
you very much, both. Now, we go to Muhammet İkbal Arslan from Anadolu Agency.
Muhammet, please unmute yourself.
MA Can
you hear me now?
CL Yes,
very well.
MA Thank
you for you taking my question. I am Muhammet, from Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency.
My question is going to be about earthquakes in Türkiye. UN Secretary-General Guterres
has also underlined that the earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria is one of
the biggest natural disasters in our time. Considering the destructive power of
the latest earthquake in Türkiye, what does WHO’s support mean for any country
facing such a devastating natural disaster? Thank you so much.
CL Thank
you very much. We didn’t quite get everything but I think the question was what
WHO can do in such a disaster in general, but of course with a focus on Türkiye
for a start. We’ll maybe go to Rob Holden, the Earthquake Incident Manager.
RH Thanks.
Hopefully, I’m able to answer the question correctly. It was a little difficult
to hear but I think perhaps we’ve covered it with the previous question and
obviously Dr Ryan’s inputs. The first priority for us now is obviously the
life-saving, those who have been badly injured by the earthquake itself, by
being inside buildings, falling debris, asphyxiation, crush injuries and so on.
00:36:38
But that’s not our only focus. As we’ve
mentioned before, we’ve got to ensure those that were injured continue to get
the right level of follow-up care, particularly those who are severely injured.
Therefore, we’ll work with the local authorities in Türkiye, we’ll work with
the local partners on the ground, we’ll work with the local communities, and
we’ll work alongside our healthcare colleagues.
Secondly, it’s around ensuring that those that
survived the initial earthquake continue to survive and continue to stay well,
and the scale of that task, as Dr Ryan has outline, is significant. We’re lucky
in the sense that the Türkiye authorities and the Türkiye government has a lot
of capability. It’s got a lot of experience of dealing with earthquakes, as we
know, hard won experience.
And we’ve seen that the capability that has
swung into place from hour one has been beyond impressive and they need to be
congratulated for that. So, we will work alongside those authorities to ensure
that the services are stood up, the surveillance systems are in place, the
supplies reach to those they need to reach and then, in due course, we’ll look
at some of the issues around how the healthcare system recovers and recovers to
be able to perform better in the future.
CL Thank
you very much and, indeed, we had long answers also already before on the
general situation. Thank you very much, both, or Rob Holden. Next question goes
to Christiane Oelrich, from dpa, German new agency. Christiane, please unmute
yourself.
00:38:23
CO Thank
you, Christian, for this question. I would like to go back to Dr Van Kerkhove
and talk about this Nature article and your response. You said we had envisaged
multiple missions to China. I would like to know whether you are still
envisaging missions to China and whether you have put in that request. Do you
get no answer to a request like that or are your requests denied? Thank you.
CL Thank
you very much and, yes, Maria Van Kerkhove, please.
MK Thank
you for the question. When I say we envision multiple missions this means when
you’re trying to study the origins of something, and we’ve discussed this
previously, it’s very, very difficult. There’s a lot of different avenues that
you can follow. There are many hypotheses that need to be followed up.
For example, most of these pathogens are
zoonotic, so you need to understand the potential animal origins, the animals
that are susceptible, information about wildlife trade, markets, the people who
work in those markets and sell those animals, any investigations that you can
follow on early cases to track down the earliest cases and understand their
potential exposures. There are suggestions of lab leaks or the release, whether
deliberate or not, accidental, of a pathogen entering the human population through
a breach in biosafety or biosecurity.
00:39:54
So, when we say we envisioned multiple missions,
many of these missions would take on different focuses, different technical
aspects and each mission that you have you would bring different experts
together and they would have specific objectives. The SAGO, in outlining its
report in June, outlined many studies that need to continue to be conducted to
understand the origins of this virus and what we had hoped to be able to do was
to establish several different missions.
WHO works with Member States and it’s up to the
Member State themselves to allow us to be able to do that. Others may want to
come in on this aspect. So, when I say we envision multiple missions, it would
really be done to have specific focuses so that we could really do the
time-laboured work, the scientific studies that take time, the technical
collaborations with colleagues in countries to form those relationships, to
establish those relationships to carry out the studies themselves, many of
which take time. That would have to happen over a number of different types of
studies.
In addition, we have followed every lead in
terms of early indications of SARS-CoV-2 circulation, whether from wastewater
or from serologic surveys or from studies from leftover biological materials.
We’ve done some investigations in Italy. We followed up some studies in the US
and in France. So, we have had collaborations with other countries in which
we’ve had some field visits to those countries as well.
So, it’s part of the scientific study. It’s not
a political discussion. There’s no politics in this. It’s really the time it
takes to do these types of missions and we will continue to pursue the work to
be done in countries, including in China and elsewhere.
00:41:52
CL Thank
you very much. Dr Ryan, please.
MR I
think it’s an important thing that is missed sometimes. It’s the primary
responsibility of governments and nation-states to investigate diseases within
their borders, primarily for the purpose of protecting their own populations by
understanding where a disease comes from. We’ll see that with multiple
diseases.
But it is also notoriously difficult to
establish that unless there is a concerted effort. We still don’t fully
understand the origins of mpox. We still don’t fully understand the origins of
Ebola. It can take years and years to establish. It’s not easy or
straightforward but what we would generally do, as WHO, is work with
government. Most of the science, 99% of that science is done in a nation-state
by national authorities, by national institutions.
The SAGO has laid out, quite clearly, the
specific studies that need to be carried out in order to better understand the
origins, for example, of SARS-CoV-2 in China. So, the constant narrative of
WHO, we will go into countries. For example, we have Marburg right now in
Equatorial Guinea. If there’s an opportunity to better understand the origin
there, we are ready, obviously, to support those countries in doing that. We
are welcomed in. We go and help control a disease and, as part of that, we try
to understand that disease better on behalf of everybody.
00:43:22
So, I don’t think the question is to WHO. I
think colleagues in the media need to direct their questions to the countries
who have been asked very specifically through the SAGO report to carry out
specific studies and report on those studies to WHO. They are laid out very,
very clearly. WHO does not have a power to go into a country to do those
specific studies, but SAGO has laid out very specifically what should be done
and we would expect to see the results of those studies.
If a country then has difficulties or has
challenges in carrying out those studies and want’s WHO to come and help, then
obviously we do that any time at the specific request of countries. But SAGO
has been clear and has laid out what needs to happen in order for the next
phase of this understanding to emerge.
And Dr Tedros has had, as he said, has
consistently, both in writing and through teleconferences, continued to offer
assistance, continued to request that these studies be done and continued to
say that, unless and until we have all these studies, all hypotheses regarding
the origins of this specific virus remain on the table.
CL Thank
you very much, both. I think we have one moment for one last question before we
need to close and this goes to Nick Cumming-Bruce, from The New York Times.
Nick, please go ahead.
NC Thank
you for taking my question. It’s back to Syria and to the north-west in
particular. We’re seeing accelerating deliveries of aid across border. I’m
wondering, are you also deploying emergency medical teams or other medical
personnel across border into the north-west. If so, could you just give us some
idea of the kind of expertise and capacity you’re sending and, if not, what’s
holding it back? Thanks.
00:45:15
CL Thank
you very much, Nick. We touched upon it but it’s good to clarify. Rob Holden,
please.
RH The
deployment of emergency medical teams is something that’s under discussion in Gaziantep
at the moment. Those teams are independent of WHO. So, it’s for those teams to
make their decision whether they go across. Obviously, we’re looking at that
and speaking with the partners on the ground, with the authorities on the
ground, to look at what is required and to look at how we might support that
but I’m not aware right now that any international emergency medical team has
gone across the border.
But I just wanted to bring you back to a point
which Mike made earlier. There is strong national capacity in north-west Syria
in particular, that we need to ensure that we give the immediate resources, the
immediate support and the immediate help to those. They are the backbone of
this operation and will remain the backbone of this operation going forward.
So, our first priority is to ensure that those
responding today, those in the hospitals today, those on the frontline today
get the equipment, the supplies and the medicines that they need to continue
doing their job and, of course, if there are areas where the emergency medical
teams believe there is support required, that’s something that we will look at,
but ultimately it will be for those teams to make their own decisions if they
go forward.
00:46:46
MR And
may I just add that the Security Council resolutions that have allowed access
to north-west Syria, we were reduced to one crossing, and that was for goods
and supplies, trans-shipped at the border and then distributed within Syria.
We’ve been doing that for years. We’ve been working with 141 local NGOs.
Even as the earthquake occurred, we had
pre-positioned supplies and we’ve supplied 76 health facilities within the
first 24-48 hours of this event having occurred. We’d done the same in Ukraine
before. And there is this need for us collectively, in terms of disaster
resilience and whatever those disasters are, be it an epidemic, be it an
earthquake, be it a flood, be it a cyclone, we have to get better at doing
preparation for these kind of events no matter where they occur because the
first responders, the first response is what save lives.
I think we’ve been doing that work over ten
years. It is not easy. It has to be said it is not easy to provide for the
healthcare of 2.7 million people in north-west Syria when we have severe
constraints as to having our personnel on the ground and having a full-scale
operation.
We really do recognise the role that the NGOs
have played in continuing to provide healthcare to so many people over so long
and keeping their health at some acceptable level. But that’s what we’re
talking about. We’re talking about providing basic, minimum healthcare to
people over a decade in a situation where access to that area is controlled by
the politics.
00:48:24
It’s not controlled by WHO in Geneva. It’s
controlled by the various actors involved politically, the Security Council and
others. All we can do, as humanitarian agencies and INGOs and national NGOs, is
to use whatever access we have, whatever access we’re allowed. That’s why
having more crossing has been very welcomed. Having more cross-line supplies is
also something that should be very welcomed.
But having large numbers of international staff
on the ground in north-west Syria is a challenge. It must be facilitated. There
must be safety and there must be a way of supporting those teams on the ground.
Right now, we do not have the capacity to do that because we do not have the
agreements in place that would allow us to deploy safely in that scale in those
areas.
And, as Rob has said, there are many NGOs on the
group. They’re very, very skilled. They need supplies, they need training, they
need a lot of inputs, and we’re focusing on that as our major input. But,
certainly, in future having more access to be able to scale-up operations in
north-west Syria would be very desirable but that’s not a choice for the
agencies or the humanitarian agencies, that’s a choice for the political
architecture to make.
But these people, no more than in Tigray and
other places, have been suffering for years and when you end up in a situation
where a population is essentially cut off from the world, humanitarian agencies
can only do what we’re allowed to do. So, I think it’s very important that we
focus on supporting those local NGOs and continue to do that while trying to
see if it’s possible to put extra international human resources on the ground
to provide extra support.
00:50:16
CL Thank
you very much, both, again. With this we’ve come to end of our press
conference. Thank you all for your participation. We’ll be sending the audio
files and Dr Tedros’ remarks as usual after the press briefing, and the full
transcript will be available in the course of tomorrow. Any follow-up, please,
to Media Inquiries. With this, I hand back to the Director-General.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Christian. Thank you to all members of the press for joining us
today. See you next time.